April 2015

National Environmental Education Week

National Environmental Education (EE) Week is April 19-25, 2015. EE Week promotes the protection of the natural world by actively engaging K-12th grade students and educators. Solutions to 21st century environmental challenges often result from STEM knowledge and skills. Hands-on environmental education projects enrich STEM learning and offer an exciting opportunity to engage more students in STEM. Recognizing the role of the environment as a portal for STEM learning, EE Week's multi-year focus is Greening STEM.

SOS: Save Our Soils

Cover crops are plants that are grown in order to protect bare soil. Its not beneficial to soil quality to leave it bare as it becomes susceptible to erosion. Cover crops are grown to improve soil fertility; also to hold and improve the soil rather than as simply a short-term economic gain.

Earth Day Craft Projects

Earth Day is Aprill 22nd and what better way to celebrate than to re-purpose unwanted items or natural materials into crafts! Recognize Earth Day with six whimsical craft projects that are great to make with kids. All of them use natural, old or recycled materials that may be found at home, school or recovered at yard sales or thrift shops. They’re quirky, creative, and can be made in an afternoon.

Curiosity and Learning

What is curiosity and what is its affect on learning? Curiosity is part of a basic circuit in our brains that compels us to go out and get things that are intrinsically rewarding. “Curiosity really is one of the very intense and very basic impulses in humans. We should base education on this behavior.”

What Happens When You Put a Hummingbird in a Wind Tunnel?

Scientists at UC Berkeley are studying the flight dynamics of wild hummingbirds. With the help of high speed videography, the researchers can monitor the hummingbirds' atypical wing movements one flap at a time, as the tiny birds respond to bad weather scenarios inside a little hummingbird-sized wind tunnel. Remarkable aviary skills!

The Hybrid Mind

The Hybrid Mind is described as the ultimate multitasking to live simultaneously in both the digital and physical worlds, using computers to maximize our powers to process intellectual data and natural environments to ignite our senses and accelerate our ability to learn and feel; combining the resurfaced “primitive” powers of our ancestors with the digital speed of our teenagers.

NCI Bruceville TX

Located in Central Texas, Nature's Classroom Institute in Bruceville is close to most major Texas cities including Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston. The new EcoVillage sits in the woodlands of nearly 290 acres adjacent to a zoo and vegetable garden. It can house up to 72 people and a kitchen and dining room powered by solar cells.